Once you have your call cut out and shaped, hewned out, and your rails crowned, your paddle shapped, crowned and drilled, and the screw put in so you can play your call, then it's time to start the Tuning. The tuning is mostly done by sanding the rails and knowing where and how much to sand them. Tuning takes time there is no fast way to do it, you PLAY YOUR CALL as you TUNE IT, because it only takes a couple of strokes with the sandpaper to ruin a call.Part 1 is the easiest part of tuning, your just sand the inside of the rails flat to get all od the drilling marks off. Be carefull not to sand your rails to thin, keep your sanding block flat against the rail as you sand it. Yes it's all done by hand!!!

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Last edited by WillowRidgeCalls on August 13th, 2013, 3:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

Part 2 is where it gets to be tricky. You start to sand the angles on the rails. Step 1. you can sand the top of the first inch of the rail flat, or just a bit of an angle toward the outside of the rail. This will give you a better kee kee and the high pitch in the front of a yelp.

Part 3 is where you start to angle the inside edge of your rail from the flat edge at the front of the rail. As you work through this part, take your time and work very slowly, keep rolling your sanding block over the edge to the inside of the call as you work back on the rail to just passed the highest part of the rails crown. This is how you create the rollover in your yelps, if you like a call that breaks fast then keep your angle change fairly short, if you like a slower break the lengthen it out. This is the part that you MUST play the call as you sand it.

Part 4 is finishing your angle on the inside edge and creating a good purring area on the rail. As you finish your angling the rail, you'll want to keep your sanding angle almost straight up n down. You'll want a fairly sharp edge on the rail so it bites into the paddle as it's workes over it. That creates a chatter and gives you a nice purring sound. What your doing is sanding a twist in the top of that rail.

Part 6 is how you create the rasp in your call, and yes this is another important play as you work part in tuning your call. As you sand the BOTTOM of your rail is how you get a deep rasp, or a shallow rasp, a chattery rasp, or a soft flat sounding rasp. I like to start from about a little before the highest part of the crown on the rail and work towards the back end of the call. What your doing is sanding a wedge shape in the bottom of the rail. Be very carefull on how much you sand off because the more you sand off the thinner the rail gets and the flatter the sound in your call, so never sand a lot off before you play your call.

Part 7 is kind of a fine tuning part of the tuning. If you've done everything correctly you may not even need to do this part, but I added it in just in case. It's a fine tuning part of a calls paddle to help a call play easier or kee kee better, it's kind of like cheating and helps a new or old hunter/builder understand what a builder is talking about when we say the ANGEL WINGS on a call. That is where the rails rub the chalk off the bottom of the paddle. It creates an X shape on your paddle. If everything is done correctly and the crown of your paddle is even on both sides, the rails on your call are the same heigth, your crown on the rails are even and alined, your screw is centred, the Angel Wings on your paddle should be very even. If not you will see it very quickly and you can adjust it without much trouble.

Now that you've got your call built and have played it and like the sound of it, it's time to put a finish on it (if you want to). Look at how the paddle sits on the call before you take it apart. Then remove the paddle and tape off all the playing areas on the call, the rail tops and the paddle bottom. Make Sure everything thing is covered and apply your finish, sanding between coats, until you have enough finish on your call. Then remove the tape and put your call together, adjusting the screw until you have it set where your getting the same sound back out of the call as it did before you finished it. Then practise with your call until you can do everything you want it to do. Then take it out and fool an old Tom with it and ENJOY YOUR TURPIN for many years.